Murray • It's the first stop for many women struggling with alcohol and drug problems — the place where addicts start the process of detoxification and map out a plan to regain control of their lives.

The Center for Women and Children is observing its 10th anniversary as a community resource that has helped thousands of Utah women and their children escape the cycle of substance abuse.

Managed by the nonprofit Volunteers of America, the center housed 426 women and 50 children in just the past year, sometimes for months at a time.

"Our first purpose is to help them detox safely," said Meghan Fry, program director of the center. "We're the first step" on the road to recovery."

Fear about what may happen to their children is often a big barrier to women trying to get help overcoming substance abuse, said Michelle Templin of Volunteers of America in Salt Lake City.

The Murray center is unique compared with many other facilities because women can stay there while they are getting treatment, and their children — up to age 10 — can stay, too. Volunteers and staff members provide supervision and ensure that children get to school while their mothers are getting help.

Even women without children benefit from the fact that they don't have to worry about where they are going to live while they are taking the first steps toward recovery, Fry says.

Judy Hughes, of Salt Lake City, was one of the center's first clients.

She said a judge gave her a choice a decade ago after she became addicted to methamphetamine: either go to jail or to the center. She chose the center and spent three months there in a treatment program.

"That was the first time I was ever introduced to the idea of living a long-term sober lifestyle," she said. "The center gave me a safe place to be, a clean environment."

The center is designed to help women focus on only one thing — their addictions, she said.

"It got me off the street, away from my old friends and bad influences," she said. After she left the center, she had problems finding a job and breaking the cycle of substance abuse. In 2003, she was arrested for driving under the influence. She started another Volunteers of America treatment program, though, and turned to The Center for Women and Children for a weekly support meeting designed to help keep her on track.

Fry said center staff and volunteers try to create an accepting environment where women aren't afraid to ask for help, especially if they have been at the center before and fell back into addiction. She said many women feel ashamed to ask for help multiple times.

Hughes said it made all the difference in the world that she could come back for help.

After her troubles in 2003, she went back to school, earned her general education diploma and in 2005 graduated from a clerical certificate program from Salt Lake Community College. She says she has a good job now, has rebuilt her life and remains sober.

Today, Hughes says, she's still drawn to the center, but this time as a volunteer. She also donates supplies whenever she can because she knows that many of the women who come to the center have nothing but the clothes they are wearing. When they leave, they have to start over again.

But hopefully, she says, they leave the center with much more than they had when they came in — a belief that they can stay on track long-term. "At the center, people care about you, and want you to succeed," she says. "It's a lot better environment than being in a jail, where no one cares what happens to you."

lesley@sltrib.com —

Center for Women and Children

For more information about the center, operated by the nonprofit Volunteers of America, go to voaut.org and click on "Center for Women and Children" under "Detoxification Services."

The center is always looking for volunteers and donations of basic items such as clothes, underwear, socks and hygiene items.